Barry Conn (NSW) & Kipiro Damas (LAE).
Copyright held by the authors, Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, and Papua New Guinea National Herbarium

Bruguiera gymnorhiza (L.) Lam.

Encyclopédie Méthodique, Botanique Vol. 4: (1798)

Other Literature: M. Percival and J.S. Womersley, Floristics and Ecology of the Mangrove Vegetation of Papua New Guinea 46 (1975) Fig. 34-and-36.

Field Characters: Large trees up to 36 m high. Bole cylindrical up to 80 cm diam.; straight bole 2- 7 m long or slightly crooked; buttresses present; spines absent; aerial roots present with knee-like roots present above soil surface; stilt roots present. Bark dark grey, reddish brown, or almost black, rough, coarsely fissured vertically, cracked vertically, scaly or flaky, or scattered pustular; lenticels rounded/swelling or irregular; subrhytidome pink or red; bark thickness <25 mm thick, 5.0 mm thick; blaze consisting of one layer; strongly aromatic or faintly to non-aromatic; faintly unpleasant or onion-like to garlic-like; outer blaze orange or red, markings absent, fibrous; inner blaze red or orange, markings absent, fibrous; exudate absent. Terminal buds not enclosed by leaves; complex hairs absent; stinging hairs absent; mature twig without hairs.

Leaves: Clustered at end of branches <internodes indistinct>. Leaves opposite, simple leathery; petiole present 20-30 mm long, not winged, attached to base of leaf blade <not peltate>, not swollen; lamina broadest at or near middle, 8.5-22.0 cm long, 3.5-9.0 cm wide; lamina symmetric, margin entire, not dissected or lobed, apex slightly acuminate, venation pinnate <secondary veins arising from the midrib along its length>, secondary veins open <spaced far apart to easily see tertiary veins>, not prominent, but visible, intramarginal veins absent; lower surface dull green to almost glossy, upper surface glossy dark green, hairs absent; oil dots absent; domatia absent; stipules present, free <from one another>, laterally placed <whether free or joined>, not encircling the twig, leafy, not fringed, large <easily visible to the eye> up to 80 mm long, not persistent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary <from between a leaf and branch>. Flowers bisexual, stalked pedicel 0-25 mm long, with many planes of symmetry <actinomorphic>, 10.0-25.0 mm long, large (>10 mm diam.) 10-20 mm diam.; perianth present, with distinct sepals and petals, pale orange, yellow, or white; inner perianth 10-15, some or partly joined; stamens 10-15, filaments present 4-6 mm long, free of each other, free of perianth; ovary inferior <seated below the petals and sepals; epigenous>, carpels joined (when more than one) <syncarpous> styles solitary <including joined together>, 1.

Fruits: Fruits arranged on unbranched axis. Fruit 20-30 mm long, 15.0-20.0 mm diam., fruit dark green, not spiny, non-fleshy, simple, indehiscent, drupe. Seeds 1, not winged.

Distribution: Bougainville, New Britain, Manus, Northern, Morobe, Western, Gulf, Central, Madang & New Ireland.

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